The new Motorola Edge+ (2023) for the US market shows a lot of promise: last week’s poll shows that 45% of voters are interested in the Moto flagship. Mostly the same hardware is available elsewhere as the Edge 40 Pro, but the problem with the US market is that there are very few competing brands, especially in the flagship segment.
This means that the Edge + mainly clashes with the Galaxy S, Pixel and iPhone models, although OnePlus is also there. While Samsung and Apple may rely on their brands to back up the higher prices, Motorola’s popularity is past its peak.
The phone offers great value for money, but there have been a couple of common complaints about it. The former came from people who hate curved screens, even though many manufacturers (including Motorola and Samsung) consider this to be a premium feature.
The other thing is, people don’t have much faith in Motorola’s software support. The company promises 3 years of OS updates and 4 years of security patches, but it needs to work on its reputation: People have been burned by slow or buggy Moto updates in the past. Also, Samsung offers 4 and 5 years respectively, as does OnePlus, Apple even more, so while this is much better than what Motorola offered before, it falls behind the competition.
By the way, 1 in 5 voters think there are better alternatives in this class and the same number of people aren’t looking for a phone like the Edge+. However, this leaves many people interested (some of whom may need a little push with a price drop).
Turning to the Motorola Edge 40 for the European market, it shows potential with about a third of the votes in its favour. However, most people aren’t impressed. The question is twofold. First, the price has increased by €100: the Edge 40 costs €550, while the Edge 30 was €450 at launch (and less now).
The other problem is that the market has moved on. The new model isn’t a particularly impressive upgrade over its predecessor (they’re side-by-side here) and even if it was, the competition has raised the bar.
At €450, the Edge 40 would have been up against the new Xperia 10 V (€450) and cheaper than the new Pixel 7a (€510). There are also the new Poco F5 and F5 Pro. And all the other phones we covered in last week’s post.
However, perhaps the toughest contender for the Edge 40 is its predecessor, the Edge 30. It has the better ultra-wide-angle camera (50MP versus 13MP), and while its smaller and slower-to-charge battery is a joke stop, the Snapdragon 778G+ holds its own against the Dimensity 8020, not to mention the fact that the previous model is about 150€ cheaper (above prices are MSRP, actual store prices are now lower).
There’s nothing Motorola can do about the hardware now, but there’s a lot it can do about the price difference. The Edge 40’s aluminum frame and faux leather back (versus plastic and plastic) are worth a small premium over the old model, though not $150.
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